And the leaves greet thee, Spring!-the joyous leaves, Whose tremblings gladden many a copse and glade, Where each young spray a rosy flush receives,

When thy south wind hath pierced the whispery shade,
And happy murmurs, running through the grass,
Tell that thy footsteps pass.

And the bright waters-they, too, hear thy call,
Spring, the awakener! thou hast burst their sleep!
Amidst the hollows of the rocks their fall

Makes melody, and in the forests deep,
Where sudden sparkles and blue gleams betray
Their windings to the day.

And flowers-the fairy-peopled world of flowers!
Thou from the dust hast set that glory free,
Coloring the cowslip with the sunny hours,
And penciling the wood-anemone :
Silent they seem; yet each to thoughtful eye
Glows with mute poesy.

But what awak'st thou in the heart, O Spring-
The human heart, with all its dreams and sighs?
Thou that giv'st back so many a buried thing,
Restorer of forgotten harmonies!

Fresh songs and scents break forth where'er thou art:
What wak'st thou in the heart?

Too much, oh! there too much!—we know not well
Wherefore it should be thus, yet, roused by thee,
What fond, strange yearnings, from the soul's deep cell,
Gush for the faces we no more may see!
How are we haunted, in thy wind's low tone,
By voices that are gone!

Looks of familiar love, that never more,

Never on earth, our aching eyes shall meet,
Past words of welcome to our household door,
And vanished smiles, and sounds of parted feet-
Spring! midst the murmurs of thy flowering trees,
Why, why reviv'st thou these?

Vain longings for the dead!-why come they back
With thy young birds, and leaves, and living blooms?
Oh! is it not, that from thine earthly track

Hope to thy world may look beyond the tombs?
Yes, gentle Spring; no sorrow dims thine air,
Breathed by our loved ones there!

LESSON IV.

The Winged Worshippers.-C. SPRAGUE.

[Addressed to two Swallows, that flew into Church during Divine Service.]

GAY, guiltless pair,

What seek ye from the fields of heaven?

Ye have no need of prayer,

Ye have no sins to be forgiven.

Why perch ye here,

Where mortals to their Maker bend?

Can your pure spirits fear

The God ye never could offend?

Ye never knew

The crimes for which we come to weep:
Penance is not for you,

Blessed wanderers of the upper deep.

To you 'tis given

To wake sweet nature's untaught lays;
Beneath the arch of heaven

To chirp away a life of praise.

Then spread each wing,

Far, far above, o'er lakes and lands,
And join the choirs that sing

In yon blue dome not reared with hands.

Or, if ye stay

To note the consecrated hour,

Teach me the airy way,

And let me try your envied power.

Above the crowd,

On upward wings could I but fly,
I'd bathe in yon bright cloud,
And seek the stars that gem the sky.

"Twere heaven indeed,
Through fields of trackless light to soar,
On nature's charms to feed,
And nature's own great God adore.

LESSON V.

SELECT PARAGRAPHS.

Memory.-ROGERS.

HAIL, Memory, hail! In thy exhaustless mine, From age to age, unnumbered treasures shine! Thought, and her shadowy brood, thy call obey, And Place and Time are subject to thy sway! Thy pleasures most we feel when most alone,The only pleasures we can call our own. Lighter than air, Hope's summer-visions die, If but a fleeting cloud obscure the sky; If but a beam of sober Reason play, Lo, Fancy's fairy frost-work melts away. But can the wiles of Art, the grasp Snatch the rich relics of a well-spent hour? These, when the trembling spirit wings her flight, Pour round her path a stream of living light, And gild those pure and perfect realms of rest, Where Virtue triumphs, and her sons are blessed.

of Power,

True Dignity-BEATTIE.

VAIN man, is grandeur given to gay attire?
Then let the butterfly thy pride upbraid ;-
To friends, attendants, armies, bought with hire?
It is thy weakness that requires their aid ;-
To palaces, with gold and gems inlaid?
They fear the thief, and tremble in the storm ;—

To hosts, through carnage who to conquest wade?
Behold the victor vanquished by the worm!
Behold what deeds of wo the locusts can perform!

True dignity is his, whose tranquil mind

Virtue has raised above the things below;
Who, every hope and fear to Heaven resigned,
Shrinks not, though fortune aim her deadliest blow.

Beauty.-GAY.

WHAT is the blooming tincture of the skin
To peace of mind and harmony within?
What the bright sparkling of the finest eye
To the soft soothing of a calm reply?
Can comeliness of form, or shape, or air,
With comeliness of words or deeds compare?
No:-those at first the unwary heart may gain;
But these, these only, can the heart retain.

Indolence.-THOMSON.

THEIR only labor was to kill the time;
And labor dire it is, and weary wo.

They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme :
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go,
Or saunter forth, with tottering step and slow:
This soon too rude an exercise they find;

Straight on their couch their limbs again they throw,
Where, hours on hours, they, sighing, lie reclined,
And court the vapory god, soft-breathing in the wind.

Change.-YOUNG.

Look nature through; 'tis revolution all :

All change; no death. Day follows night, and night
The dying day; stars rise, and set, and rise;
Earth takes the example. See, the Summer, gay
With her green chaplet and ambrosial flowers,
Droops into pallid Autumn: Winter, gray,
Horrid with frost, and turbulent with storm,
Blows Autumn, and his golden fruits, away;—
Then melts into the Spring. Soft Spring, with breath
Favonian, from warm chambers of the south,
Recalls the first. All, to re-flourish, fades;

As in a wheel, all sinks to re-ascend

Emblems of man, who

passes, not expires.

LESSON VI.

Contrasted Soliloquies.-JANE TAYLOR.

"ALAS!" exclaimed a silver-headed sage, "how narrow is the utmost extent of human science!-how circumscribed the sphere of intellectual exertion! I have spent iny life in acquiring knowledge; but how little do I know! The farther I attempt to penetrate the secrets of nature, the more I am bewildered and benighted. Beyond a certain limit, all is but confusion or conjecture; so that the advantage of the learned over the ignorant, consists greatly in having ascertained how little is to be known.

"It is true that I can measure the sun, and compute the distances of the planets; I can calculate their periodical movements, and even ascertain the laws by which they perform their sublime revolutions; but with regard to their construction, and the beings which inhabit them, what do I know more than the clown?

Delighting to examine the economy of nature in our own world, I have analyzed the elements; and have given names